It’s enough to make a grown man cry.

Since August 2006, drivers have been spending an equal amount of time sitting in traffic on State Route 305 as they have with their families.

And that’s only a slightly stretched truth.

In just a few mere months, the ubiquitous traffic cones outlining the right hand lane on SR 305 will be gone (temporarily) forever. Ahhh … (temporarily) forever is such a gloriously long time.

Until the cones are packed away and sent back to whence they came, they are, at best, a nuisance. Granted, they’re a necessary nuisance, but a nuisance nonetheless. Traffic flow, even in the peak commuting hours, is getting better.

Perhaps because the lane closures have become so ingrained in our collective conscience that now, it’s just second nature. Drivers are being much more courteous about letting others into the left-hand lane and about not waiting until they reach the last centimeter before the right-hand lane closes to move over.

They kick the starter and give it all they got.

It’s so natural it’s as involuntary as breathing. Blinker, wait for a space, move on over. Or, as some drivers prefer, blinker, move over and hold his or her breath, hoping someone won’t be in the mood to test the laws of physics.

Just because we’re getting better at it doesn’t mean we’re not biding our time until the frustrating situation is over.

The end is in sight, as the project is set to wrap up in October.

And once the traffic cones get up and go and there’s a nice, wide, open, smooth road ahead, traffic flow might get even better. The State Department of Transportation will conduct traffic counts and analyze the results. The result will be fed into a computer, which will use the information to time the lights.

Properly timing the lights to correspond with traffic will make for smoother traffic, less stops and perhaps — dare we dream it — a faster drive through the busy corridor.

We can ride the wind at double speed and go places that we’ve never, never seen. And the choir of angels sings.

The traffic flow in SR 305 is a contentious matter for electeds and non-electeds alike. Last month, Poulsbo City Council Member Becky Erickson took the viking helmet by the horns and sent around a resolution to start the sequencing project. She retracted it once it was clear the light sequencing was already on the DOT’s agenda. We’re just glad the end is almost near.

To kind of quote the Rolling Stones, we’ll love the day when we never stop, never stop.